One of the biggest attractions at The Banks shopping and residential district opens to the public today. The Moerlein Lager House restaurant and microbrewery, next to the still under-development Smale Riverfront Park, features 19th Century-inspired food and a large selection of beers including craft brews and more than 100 international beers, all meant to evoke Cincinnati's rich brewing history.

Frustrated about dog owners who won't clean up after their pooches, managers at an apartment complex in West Chester Township are going all Forensic Files to stop the problem. The Lakes at West Chester Village told residents all dogs must submit a mouth swab so managers have a DNA database to use so it can match up poo left on the lawns with the rightful dog and its owner.

With Opening Day about a month away, the Cincinnati Reds are poised to win the division title this season, according to the Associated Press. With a revamped pitching staff and star first baseman Joey Votto, the team's prospects look better than they have in years, said AP sports writer Tom Withers. The season opener against the Miami Marlins will begin at 4:10 p.m. on April 5, after the annual Findlay Market Opening Day Parade through Over-the-Rhine and downtown.

Budget cuts at the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) could mean the end for Hamilton County's 4-H program. County commissioners have ordered MSD to cut 10 percent of its budget, and some of that probably will come from the $400,000 the agency gives to programs like 4-H, which helps young people learn animal husbandry and life sciences activities like raising sheep and cattle. Some critics, however, question why sewer funds were being used to support an unrelated program in the first place.

In news elsewhere, hometown boy George Clooney largely was shut out of winning awards at Sunday night's Oscar ceremony. Clooney was nominated as Best Actor for The Descendants and for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Ides of March, but lost in both categories – to Jean Dujardin for The Artist and to the writers of The Descendants, respectively. Remember, George: It's an honor just to be nominated, and you still have that gorgeous hair. Other big winners last night included Meryl Streep, Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer.

In more of his over-the-top invective, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum dropped a couple of doozies over the weekend while campaigning in Michigan. First, Santorum said President Obama was “a snob” for saying he wanted all Americans to go to college. Then, he disparaged a 1960 speech by President Kennedy on the separation of church and state by saying he “almost threw up” while reading it. Oh, Republicans: Please nominate this guy, so we can all bet on just how many states he will lose in November.

WikiLeaks has begun publishing more than five million confidential emails from Stratfor, a U.S.-based security firm. Stratfor's computers were hacked by the activist group Anonymous in December. The company provides analysis of world affairs to subscribers which include major corporations, military officials and international government agencies.

Cincinnati’s new law for selling scrap metal, which was scheduled to take effect today, has been put on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by two local dealers. The law, approved by City Council last month, would require people who sell scrap metal within the city to get a license and make businesses that buy the metal pay dealers by check with a two-day hold, among other changes. The law was designed to cut down on metal theft in Cincinnati, but Cohen Brothers in the East End and American Compressed Steel in Carthage argued it would adversely impact their livelihood. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Winkler issued a preliminary injunction Thursday afternoon.

Last week we learned that Aaron Boone would be the grand marshal of the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade, and now we know who will throw out the first pitch at the opener against the Miami Marlins. Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr., who will retire later this year after a 41-year career in public service, has been selected for the honor. Just how far the 77-year-old Leis will be able to throw the ball remains to be seen, but we're betting he will do a better job than Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory did a few years ago.

Clermont County residents who suffered property damage in the tornado two weeks ago will be able to apply for Small Business Administration loans beginning this morning. The Disaster Loan Outreach Center is now open at the Washington Township Hall, located at 2238 Highway 756. Renters could receive up to $40,000 in loans while homeowners could receive up to $200,000 in loans to rebuild their home or replace furniture, said disaster relief officials.

Kroger, the Cincinnati-based grocery chain, is among the retailers that use so-called “pink slime” in some of its ground beef products. U.S. consumers generally have reacted with disgust after learning that many fast food restaurants and grocers use ground beef that contains “finely textured lean beef,” the product made from beef trimmings after all the choice cuts of beef are removed. About 70 percent of the ground beef sold at supermarkets contains the meat filler, according to reports.

In news elsewhere, a United Nations official this week formally accused the U.S. government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment toward Bradley Manning, the American soldier who was held in solitary confinement for almost a year on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source. Juan Mendez has completed a 14-month investigation into the treatment of Manning since the soldier's arrest at a U.S. military base in May 2010. He concludes that the U.S. military was at least culpable of cruel and inhumane treatment in keeping Manning locked up alone for 23 hours a day over an 11-month period in conditions that he also found might have constituted torture, London's Guardian reports. American media, however, seem curiously quiet on this news.

Although President Obama reiterated his intention this week to stick to a timeline that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014, pressure is mounting to quicken the schedule. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is demanding that NATO withdraw its forces from the small, rural outposts around the nation and confine its soldiers to military bases. The demand is the latest fallout after the burning of Korans by U.S. service members last month and the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians Sunday, allegedly by an Army staff sergeant who went on a rampage.

The Columbia Journalism Review looks at what The Gannett Co., the owner of The Enquirer, could've bought with the $37.1 million compensation package it gave recently departed CEO Craig Dubow. CJR's findings include that the money would've paid for the starting salaries of 1,474 staffers at The Indianapolis Star or 310,720 annual subscriptions to The Tallahassee Democrat's website. “In October, four months after handing 700 employees pink slips, Gannett gave Dubow a $37.1 million package, also accumulated over decades. He earned a mere $9.4 million in 2010, some of which padded his retirement package. A few weeks later, the company announced it would force employees to take their fifth unpaid furlough in three years,” the magazine reports.

Much attention has been paid to a column published Wednesday by The New York Times, in which Greg Smith explained why he was resigning after 12 years at Goldman Sachs due to what he said was the unethical and corrupt culture at the investment firm. But lesser known is this letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission by an unidentified whistleblower at JPMorgan Chase. The writer describes similar reckless practices at that firm, adding, “I am now under the opinion that we are actually putting hard-working Americans – unaware of what lays ahead – at extreme market risk.”

Hamilton County commissioners want to help you enjoy the day if you're heading downtown to catch either or both of the events. They've lowered the parking rates today at the garages in The Banks district near Great American Ball Park. There are now 6,000 parking spaces near the stadium that will cost $10 for the day, down from $12 last year.

Just in time for the season opener, first baseman Joey Votto has agreed to a $251.5 million, 12-year deal with the Reds, the longest guaranteed contract in Major League history. The deal adds $225 million over 10 years to his previous contract and includes a club option for 2024, when the 2010 National League MVP turns 41.

Shortly after an independent assessment criticized her performance in the job, Hamilton County Public Defender Shelia Kyle-Reno has reached a deal to leave the position nearly a year before her contract ends. Until a permanent successor is found, Kyle-Reno will be replaced by W. Kelly Johnson, a former federal public defender who will work for free.

A recount is under way this morning to see which Democrat will challenge Brad Wenstrup for U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt's seat in Congress. For now, the winner of the 2nd District Democratic primary is William Smith, a Pike County man that party leaders had never even met before he beat David Krikorian by 60 votes. Because the margin of victory was so small, Ohio's Secretary of State ordered a recount in 13 of Hamilton County's 222 precincts.

An important historical document has recently been uncovered and released. In 2006 an adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice authored a memo opposing the Bush administration’s torture practices. The White House tried to collect and destroy all copies of the memo, but one survived deep in the State Department’s files and was declassified this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive. The memo argues that the Convention Against Torture, and the Constitution’s prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, do indeed apply to the CIA’s use of “waterboard(ing), walling, dousing, stress positions, and cramped confinement.”

Syrian troops have launched new assaults on rebels as an envoy of United Nations mediator Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus today to discuss implementing a ceasefire plan. Anti-government activists said several towns, including Homs, Deraa and the Douma suburb of Damascus, have been shelled. U.N. officials report the conflict has cost more than 9,000 lives since it began a year ago. The Syrian government blames violence on "terrorist gangs" and allege about 3,000 members of the security forces have been killed. The U.N. wants a truce deal by April 12.

A major Chinese insurance company said it will stop indemnity coverage for tankers carrying Iranian oil beginning in July, narrowing insurance options for Iran's main export that already are constricted by economic sanctions pushed by the United States. This is the first sign that refiners in China, Iran's top crude oil buyer, may struggle to obtain the shipping and insurance to keep importing from the Middle Eastern nation. Iran's other top customers -- India, Japan and South Korea -- are facing similar problems.

In lighter fare, an animal rights group is urging a pastor who preaches about the importance of marital sex to teach about how becoming vegan can add extra spark to the faithful's sex lives. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told The Rev. Mike Scruggs that vegans are less prone to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity than meat-eaters, and they often have more stamina, lower body weight, and a reduced risk of sexual dysfunction. People who choose vegan meals are also following God's call to mercy, PETA added, as plant-based meals save animals from immense suffering on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.

Media musings from Cincinnati and beyond

Their
highly accurate texts were created without seeing the scrolls and they
shattered secrecy created by a cabal of scholars who for decades
restricted other researchers’ and translators’ access to the ancient
documents.

Steve
Rosen’s recent Page 1 story in the Enquirer got that right. The other
scoop was my 1991 Enquirer story reporting Wacholder and Abegg’s
triumph. Our photo showed visually impaired Wacholder looking at a
dramatically enlarged image on a Mac.

Their
ordeal had its origin in a promise by then-HUC president Nelson Glueck
in 1969. He agreed to house 1000-plus photographic images of the scrolls
lest something happen to the originals. He also agreed with scholars
controlling access to the scrolls that no one else would see the HUC
negatives while the original scrolls existed.

That
included Wacholder. To his frustration, HUC honored that promise even
after Glueck’s death and despite the growing international controversy
over restricted scholarly access to many of the original scrolls.

Today’s Biblical Archaeology Society website, biblicalarchaeology.org,
recalled how Wacholder and Abegg got lucky in 1989. Chief editor of the
scrolls John Strugnell sent a copy of a secret concordance of the Dead
Sea Scrolls to Wacholder. It “consisted of photocopies of index cards
on which every word in the unpublished scrolls was listed, including its
location and the few words surrounding it.” It was their Rosetta
Stone.

Wacholder
and Abegg programmed the Mac to apply their knowledge of ancient
literature to the data in the concordance. "I'm sick and tired of all
this waiting," he told me at the time.

In
1991, the society’s Biblical Archaeology Review published the
reconstructions, breaking the more-than-40-year-old monopoly on the
scrolls.

And
when jealous scholars challenged the accuracy of the reconstructions,
Wacholder was dismissive. "I'll match my knowing of the . . . texts -
even blind — any of them.

Wacholder
died last year. Abegg became professor and co-director of the Dead Sea
Scrolls Institute at Trinity Western University in British Columbia.

•I’ve
described my fear that the Cleveland Plain Dealer — long Ohio’s best
daily — will follow other Advance Publications into print obscurity. PD
journalists also heard the clatter of bean counters and created the
Save The Plain Dealer campaign. Earlier this year, Advance — another
name for Newhouse family publications — the New Orleans
Times-Picayune as a traditional daily. It fired lots of journalists and
now is printed three days a week to accommodate heavy advertising.
Surviving journalists also work online every day. With that innovation,
Newhouse made New Orleans America’s largest city without a daily paper.
Smaller Advance dailies suffered the same fate. Poynter.com quoted an email from PD science writer John Mangels earlier this month:

“The
multi­media campaign will begin Sunday with a half­-page ad in The Plain
Dealer, to be followed by bus and billboard ads throughout the city. TV
and radio ads will appear soon. There will be mass mailings and e­
mailings to elected officials, political and business leaders and other
people of influence. We’ll have a Facebook page with an abundance of
content, a petition on Change.org,
and a Twitter feed. We’re also working to organize community forums
where we’ll discuss the future of journalism in Northeast Ohio, and the
potential impact of the loss of the daily paper and much of its
experienced news­gathering staff.”

Later,
reached by phone, Mangels told Poynter that PD management hasn’t said
anything about Advance’s plans. “The only detail that we’ve been told by
our bosses here is that major changes are coming, layoffs in some
number are coming,” Mangels said.

•Have
you noticed how GOP aspirants for the 2016 presidential nomination are
using long-reviled mainstream news media (MSM) to distance themselves
from Romney and his disdain for retirees, veterans, Hispanics, African
Americans, and young adults? I love the GOP’s irony deficit. They’ve
spent decades teaching True Believers that the MSM is an evil, liberal
cabal, not to be trusted. Now, these same Republican 40-somethings want
voters to believe what the mainstream news media tell them about their
aspirations and sagacity. They’re also fleeing Romney’s transparent
hypocrisy and its blowback; benefits to Democratic constituencies are
meant to buy votes but benefits for GOP constituencies never, ever
should be understood as a way to woo financial support or votes.

•Here’s
an angle I haven’t encountered in post-election coverage: an almost
inevitable GOP win in 2016. Not only is a second elected term unusual
for modern Democratic presidents, but a third term for either party is
rare. Since FDR in 1940, only popular Republican Ronald Reagan was
succeeded by a Republican, George H. W. Bush. I’m not alone if my
reading to liberal columnists is a fair indicator of grudging agreement.
They want Obama to push through agendas they’ve advocated for the past
four years and to find the cajones to fight for his nominations when
they go before the Senate led by Kentucky Pride Mitch McConnell.

•Propaganda-laden
cable news and TV/radio talk shows can lull angry, fearful partisans
and voters into believing what facts refute. And I mean refute not
rebut. Anything out of sync with those GOP media was rejected as MSM
bias. Whether it was a Pavlovian response, delusional thinking or
magical realism, the result was Republican candidates, consultants,
strategists, voters and Fox News were stunned when state after state
went for Obama. Carl Rove went into a spin of denial on Fox News as
election returns came in; he believed what Fox News had been telling him
for months: Romney in a walk. What was that cliche, something about
drinking the Kool-aid?

• This
from Eric Alterman in his What Liberal Media? column in The Nation:
“They watched Fox News, read The Wall Street Journal, clicked on Drudge
and the Daily Caller, and listened to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Hugh
Hewitt, Karl Rove, Dick Morris and Peggy Noonan promise them that their
Kenyan/Muslim/socialist/terrorist nightmare was nearly over. One
election was all that stood between them and a country without capital
gains taxes, pollution regulation, healthcare mandates, gay marriage and
abortions for rape victims.”

Alterman
continued: “The less wonderful irony involves the supporting role the
mainstream media played in this un-reality show. Post-truth politics
reached a new pinnacle this year as major MSM machers admitted to
a lack of concern with the veracity of the news their institutions
reported. ‘It’s not our job to litigate [the facts] in the paper,’ New
York Times national editor Sam Sifton told the paper’s public editor,
Margaret Sullivan, regarding phony Republican ‘voter fraud’ allegations.
‘We need to state what each side says.’ ‘The truth? C’mon, this is a
political convention’ was the headline over a column by Glenn Kessler,
the Washington Post ‘fact-checker.’ Yes, you read that right.”

How
bad was it? Alterman quoted Steve Benen, a blogger and Rachel Maddow
Show producer. He “counted fully 917 false statements made by Mitt
Romney during 2012. Just about the truest words to come out of the
campaign were those of the Romney pollster who explained, ‘We’re not
going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.’ But not only
did many members of the MSM give Romney a pass on his serial lying; they
actually endorsed his candidacy on the assumption that we need not take
seriously any of those statements the candidate had felt compelled to
make in order to win the nomination of his party.”

•In
the expanding universe of online calumny, few American public officials
or public figures strike back big time in part because of broad First
Amendment protections available to defamers. British libel law makes
it much easier for the victim to win. The latest target of false online
vilification is Lord Alistair McAlpine. BBC implicated but didn’t name
him in its spreading child abuse scandal. However, so little was left to
the imagination that in Britain’s media/politics hothouse that McAlpine
was named in myriad tweets.

BBC
quickly admitted error and paid him almost $300,000 to salve his bruised
feelings. ITV — Britain’s Independent Television — followed BBC with
apology and more than $200,000 for inadvertently accusing McAlpine of
abusing children.

McAlpine
is offering to accept a tweeted apology and modest payment from most of
the tweeters. He’s less forgiving of 20 members of Parliament,
journalists and other public officials and figures. They probably face
costly libel actions in a country where it’s almost impossible for a
defendant to win.

•Assume
every microphone in front of you is “on.” You don’t warm up with
“There once was a man from Nantucket . . . “ on the assumption that mic
is dead. Myriad public figures have ignored that Law of the Jungle to
their pain. The latest is Jonathan Sacks, Orthodox chief rabbi of Great
Britain, who delivers a “Thought for the Day” regularly on BBC radio’s
Today program.

Here’s
the Telegraph report and another statement from the overworked BBC
apology machine. After Sacks finished and apparently assumed his mic
was turned off, host Evan Davis asked, “Jonathan, before you go, you
know, any thoughts on what’s going on over in Israel and Gaza at the
moment?”

Lord Sacks sighed, before replying: “I think it has got to do with Iran, actually.”

Cohost
Sarah Montague realized Sacks did not seem to know his remarks were
being broadcast and she could be heard to whisper: “We, we’re live.”

Lord
Sacks adopted a more formal broadcasting manner and suggested the
crisis demanded “a continued prayer for peace, not only in Gaza but for
the whole region. No-one gains from violence. Not the Palestinians, not
the Israelis. This is an issue here where we must all pray for peace and
work for it.”

Later,
BBC apologized for catching Sacks off-guard. A spokesman said: “The
Chief Rabbi hadn’t realized he was still on-air and as soon as this
became apparent, we interjected. (Host) Evan likes to be spontaneous
with guests but he accepts that in this case it was inappropriate and he
has apologized to Lord Sacks. The BBC would reiterate that apology.”

•So
far, I haven’t found a news angle beyond prurience in the Petraeus
resignation. Yes, there could have been a national security issue, but
once then-spymaster Petraeus went public about his extramarital affair,
he couldn’t be blackmailed. We’ll never know how well the CIA would
have run under Petraeus, but turning it further into an almost
unaccountable paramilitary force with its fleet of deadly drones killing
Americans abroad and others would not have been in the national
interest. We need a good spy agency. Killing people you’re trying to
subvert and convert is a lousy game plan.

•Admiring
and available women are no stranger to powerful public and corporate
leaders. Generals are no exception. Neither are social climbers hoping
to use them. All that’s missing from the Petraeus soap opera is for
some just-married junior officer to claim his general exercised droit du
seigneur.

•We
can wonder what their frequently mentioned Lebanese origins have to do
with the Tampa twins’ roles in the Petraeus soap opera, or whether
Paula’s arms are fitter and better displayed than Michele’s. After that,
let’s get to the fun stuff: the ease with which law enforcement obtains
our emails.

•And
a belated Thanksgiving note. Somehow, I found a turkey on the
Copperbelt in Central Africa where I was editing the new daily Zambia
Times. I did my best to explain how to roast it with stuffing to the
cook in the house I was caring for. He served it that evening with
obvious pride. It was brown, roasted over open coal on a spit he’d
tended for hours. The stuffing was special beyond my dreams: the
sonofabitch had used the kosher salami I’d hoarded for months for
stuffing. I thanked and praised him through clenched teeth and dug in.
It was memorable. And awful.